What do gamers actually think about Ray-Tracing?

[Nexus18]

And that is fair. I actually don't have issues with comments like this. You did not feel the need to say RT makes little to no difference to your post to justify why you don't use it.

Yup exactly.

It's also the way those same people say "fps is king" and "minimal iq improvement with rt" yet then go onto slate upscaling tech because "iq hit is too much" thus they are getting significantly less perf/fps by not using it, even though the evidence completely and utterly debunks these view points of theirs....

 

[jonnylaris]

Yea exactly I love new tech and any advancement in graphics is very welcome for me but I play at high resolutions (specificially racing simulation) which means RT is a massive performance hit for me unfortunatley.

 

[Calin Banc]

But you aren't going to notice realistic shadows in motion that much, especially when focusing on other things. It's a poor use of resources when they could be used for better performance. Shadow detail should be quite far down the priorities.

Yes, you will.

 

[Nexus18]

Yes, you will.

Riftbreaker (amd sponsored RT title) is a great showcase for this and it's lightweight rt! It's actually a very underrated RT effect.

RT effects shine far more in open world games too, mostly because such big worlds can't have every area polished like linear tunnel games such as TLOU, tomb raider and so on.

 

[VonScar]

Meh. Comes to mind when I think of ray tracing.

 

[ateNever]

I've never used it and I don't plan to at the moment. Although my friend keeps insisting to me that it's a must-have.

 

[eddyr]

It is a must have, in a couple of years. Put me down for 2028 +/- a year.

Of course with the direction pricing has been going, shrinking market, and then include an increase in cost of manufacture if the world keeps its current course, then even the entry range is going to price people away and out.

 

[Calin Banc]

Riftbreaker (amd sponsored RT title) is a great showcase for this and it's lightweight rt! It's actually a very underrated RT effect.

RT effects shine far more in open world games too, mostly because such big worlds can't have every area polished like linear tunnel games such as TLOU, tomb raider and so on.

Practically is connected with how much effort the devs out into it regardless of raster or rt/pt. I've resumed a bit playing fallout 76 and oh boy does it look bad and kinda sucks as gameplay, too! )

But, only one around that's in this genre, so yeah ... Can't help thinking how good will be with a Metro touch

 

[AgedIdiot]

Can look really pretty BUT does not improve game play to me - on that basis not really bothered.

 

[Firegod]

10 games that prove you don't need ray tracing for phenomenal visuals

 

[Rroff]

10 games that prove you don't need ray tracing for phenomenal visuals

But most of those games could be transformed with good/proper application of ray tracing.

 

[TNA]

But most of those games could be transformed with good/proper application of ray tracing.

Was about to say the same.

 

[Nexus18]

Also, the point has never been to say it's not impossible to get good visuals without ray tracing, as shown, this is entirely possible, however:

- the devs need to spend a considerable amount of time doing this in order to achieve good results (which nowadays they don't have the luxury of), this is why devs are moving away from raster first and foremost
- they might make their games more limited in terms of being less open, less exporable, less dynamic in terms of destruction because of static lights, shadows and so on

Raster works well for linear/tunnel games although even then, it is arguable as to how good these are at times. The biggest problem is with open world games where it's impossible to get everything look correct. Even RDR 2 (incredible visuals) has many shortcomings/issues because of raster.

BTW, from that list, batman arkham knight is one that looks great but it's lighting etc. is actually pretty awful, the city/buildings etc. do not look grounded/apart of the ground, it's like a cardbox popup childrens book when you look at the skyline.

Ghost of tshumia could badly do with RT shadows at the very least, in wooded areas, all of the shadows are hard, they're not soft or diffused which makes it actually quite hard to see/play without being distracted by this.

 

[RGAF]

I know i've said this before but honestly, some of you have no clue how games are made. Raster is never going anywhere. How do you raytrace something without the raster models/materials/textures on screen. ALL RAYTRACING AFFECTS IS THE LIGHTING.

Go use Blender, a free raytracing program. Put a shape in the viewpoint. Raster. Place a material or texture on it. Raster. Place a light. Render it. Now it's raytraced. Thats basically how 3d game levels are made. It's the light and how it reacts with the textures and materials that create the shadows and light bounces etc.

Those big open world games that have a huge amount of models and textures/materials which are all raster by the way will still need a lot of raster power. Why do you think more cores are added to GPUS and not cut down/stay the same. It's because the models and textures/materials are also becoming more complex and used more.

 

[mrk]

ALL RAYTRACING AFFECTS IS THE LIGHTING.

RT covers a broad range of rendering tech from lighting to everything in between including ray traced audio.

Path traced games literally render the entire scene with rays, too. Look at Metro Exodus Enhanced edition, a game that is only playable on a ray ray tracing capable GPU because there is no rastering involved in that version of the game.

In other games you can literally turn off RT lighting and leave everything else RT enabled. RT isn't only lighting, this much is obvious to anyone who has played a broad range of ray traced games since RT became a thing.

Raster is being replaced by ray tracing, it can be done quicker with higher precision and visually more realistic than rastering can ever be done, and raster to be good requires a lot of developer labour time. This topic has been covered to death in various articles and developers themselves in interviews have said how much easier their lives are thanks to ray tracing as it saves so much time.

Tech from Nvidia simply amplifies that speed and performance by using things like Ray Reconstruction and ReSTIR GI to replace the traditional de-noisers that are inefficient and noisy with a single AI pass to predict multiple rays bouncing using a single pass which frees up the GPU to do other things and the game to run faster and look better in the process.

SOme peoiple think raster GPU power is the benchmark of a good GPU, yeah a decade ago maybe. Times have changed and RT power matters more now and will continue to be the case going forwards especially with UE5 now leveraging both HW and SW ray tracing at its very core.

 

[Rroff]

ALL RAYTRACING AFFECTS IS THE LIGHTING.

Yes it isn't being used for geometry, but it allows for lighting features which can't easily be done with traditional techniques like real time accurate specular light capture, indirect lighting, colour transport, accurate caustics, etc. a game properly using ray tracing will make games which don't look very old. Unfortunately a lot of games right now which use ray tracing either do it wrong (i.e. using ray tracing to project shadows rather than light the scene so that shadows naturally form) or only use a small subset of features, etc.

 

[RGAF]

This is just not true, RT covers a broad range of rendering tech from lighting to everything in between including ray traced audio.

Path traced games literally render the entire scene with rays, too. Look at Metro Exoduc Enhanced edition, a game that is only playable on a ray ray tracing capable GPU because there is no rastering involved in that version of the game.

raster is being replaced by ray tracing, it can be done quicker with higher precision and visually more realistic than rastering can ever be done, and raster to be good requires a lot of developer labour time. This topic has been covered to death in various articles and developers themselves in interviews have said how much easier their lives are thanks to ray tracing as it saves so much time.

Tech from Nvidia simply amplifies that speed and performance by using things like Ray Reconstruction and ReSTIR GI to replace the traditional de-noisers that are inefficient and noisy with a single AI pass to predict multiple rays bouncing using a single pass which frees up the GPU to do other things and the game to run faster and look better in the process.

I can't begin to tell you how wrong you are. How do you think a level is made? I'll give you a clue, go use something like Unreal Engine 5 and then tell me raster is not important. Are you really telling me there is no rasterizing at all in Metro Exodus. How did the levels get made then? Could you please point me to this magical raytracing engine that creates games? I've been making my levels all wrong all these years.

 

[RGAF]

Yes it isn't being used for geometry, but it allows for lighting features which can't easily be done with traditional techniques like real time accurate specular light capture, indirect lighting, colour transport, accurate caustics, etc. a game properly using ray tracing will make games which don't look very old. Unfortunately a lot of games right now which use ray tracing either do it wrong (i.e. using ray tracing to project shadows rather than light the scene so that shadows naturally form) or only use a small subset of features, etc.

Someone get's it.

 

[mrk]

Things like geometry still needs to be rendered yes, but everything else requires RT, you stated that RT is only lighting, it is not. YOu literally cannot play Metro Enhanced if you don't have an RT card. In that context you could have the most powerful raster GPU on the planet and it means squat all because it can't do RT.

Does a 7900XTX, a very powerful raster GPU, that can do RT, play Metro Enhanced as good as a 4090 or even a 4080? Definitely not.

 

[RGAF]

Things like geometry still needs to be rendered yes, but everything else requires RT, you stated that RT is only lighting, it is not. YOu literally cannot play Metro Enhanced if you don't have an RT card. In that context you could have the most powerful raster GPU on the planet and it means squat all because it can't do RT.

And what do you think renders the geometry?